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1.5.5-Doeskin-pantaloons
Brick!Club 1.5.5: Vague Flashes on the Horizon Or, DO NOT FORGET MY NAME With my non-existant French skills, I looked at the title of this chapter in French (Vagues éclairs à l’horizon) and imagined a hazy image of a distant future, in which Valjean and Javert sit at a little cafe together and sip coffee and eat éclairs. Yep. When Javert sees Valjean, he turned round abruptly behind him, and followed him with his eyes until he disappeared, with folded arms and a slow shake of the head, and his upper lip raised in company with his lower to his nose, a sort of significant grimace… I can just picture Javert, turning dramatically to fold his arms and shake his head as Valjean walks past. It’s a great mental image. Many people have been discussing the possibility of a person whose soul is an oyster. My brain has immediately decided that (knowing his luck) this person would be Bossuet. I don’t know why. Just thought I should share. And all the other Amis would have really cool animals, like Enjolras would have a lion and Combeferre would get an owl and Courfeyrac would have an adorable kitten, and Bossuet would just be walking around with this oyster in his pocket being like, “Yep.” I like how Hugo starts this analogy about different people’s souls being different animals, and then halfway through he realises how fatalistic that sounds, as though because your soul is this animal, you have no choice but to display that animal’s characteristics. And then he’s like, “No, guys! Social education, when well done, can always draw from a soul, of whatever sort it may be, the utility which it contains! This was supposed to be a book about how no-one is intrinsically evil, just molded by society!” On the note of how the book is (as I understand it right now) about how circumstance and choice can make anyone good, or evil, I find Hugo’s description of Javert’s personality interesting. He tells us how Javert was composed of two very simple and two very good sentiments, comparatively; but he rendered them almost bad, by dint of exaggerating them… which is like an effort to show us that Javert wasn’t evil or wrong, just overdoing it. But then, he tells us Javert believed: "These men are irremediably lost. Nothing good can come from them." which is pretty much the antithesis of everything Hugo has ever said. So although Javert is not evil, and he doesn’t actually have bad intentions, he is pretty much a personification of what Hugo thinks is wrong with the world. Poor Javert. Also, I’m noticing Hugo is developing a tendency to characterise people based on their choice of and attitude to literature. The Bishop reads the Bible and various religious texts because “The mind is a garden.” Madame Thenardier reads romances, which give her notions and make her a terrible person (apparently). Valjean reads books because they are “cold but safe friends” it helps him become more… civilised, shall we say? And then Javert reads also for edification, only unlike Valjean, who “loved books” he hates them. I guess I ought to try and analyse this? I suppose an interesting point is that Madame Thenardier, by this stage, has been pretty much destroyed by society and thrown thoroughly onto the side of bad. And she basically reads for her own leisure, and no other reason. Whereas the Bishop, Valjean and Javert, who are at best good, and at worst morally ambiguous are all reading in an effort to better themselves in some way through education. And (spoilers, guys) the Bishop and Valjean, who genuinely enjoy their reading, turn out ultimately good, whereas Javert, who doesn’t find pleasure in bettering himself, fails to do so for a long time, and ends tragically. Commentary Treblemirinlens and Bossuet would just be walking around with this oyster in his pocket being like, “Yep.” OMG Interesting reflection on the characters and books! Pilferingapples I like the thoughts about the books- that it’s not the access to education itself, but the intent behind it, that elevates a person? We saw some suggestion of this with Valjean’s prison education, undertaken for spite, which failed to uplift him at all— but now he’s reading and it’s improving everything from his outlook to his self presentation, even keeping him company in his somewhat-necessary isolation. Javert hates what he reads— I wonder if he takes any of it in, whatever it is (and I am totally sticking with my headcanon that he’s reading to have a step on The Enemy now) or just reads it as a kind of fight, to see how he can best take it apart? And Mme. Thenardier and her novels are seriously a topic all on their own— it could be argued that the books she chooses might be actually be encouraging the kinds of social rules keeping her subservient to her husband, that she’s just reading things that promise her she’s already on the right track? Not that all romances do that, or that escapism is bad, but if Hugo’s actually acknowledging the multiple uses of the medium there that’s rather more nuanced than most such media critiques. This is a really good topic, wow! I hope smarter people will take it up, because I am utterly distracted by the thought of Bossuet having the soul of an oyster because NO IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE, oysters are filter feeders, they’re hard shelled and take the garbage of their surroundings and make a life out of it and then they take the stuff even they can’t break down and make it into a pearl?!? And that’s TOO POETICALLY GREAT? THANK YOU FOR THIS MENTAL IMAGE I HAVE SUCH IDEAS NOW, IRENY I AM HORNING IN ON YOUR CROSSOVER THING TONIGHT.